La Mercè is one of Barcelona's biggest events every single year. It's a celebration of the city's patron saint, The Virgin of Mercy or Mare de Déu de la Mercè. It's a day full of music, dances, exhibitions, open museums, and everything you can think of! Luckily it was also a bank holiday so for me, after almost two years, I took out my Nikon camera from the drawer and brought it with me to the city center to be in the celebrations.
Here are some photos that I took from the beautiful events along the Cathedral area and to the center of Placa Sant Jaume. It was a rainy start of the week but today it was a perfect combination of sunshine and cool breezy weather. I'm just so happy I decided to bring my camera and take these lovely memories to share with you all!
The creator did a really good job creating his masterpiece. Rolling seas, gentle grasslands, mighty forests, and a lot more above and below the surface. He looked at it with much pride and pleasure. But one thing was missing, there was no color.
So on that day, all seven of his angels were rejoicing and truly excited that their moment has finally arrived. The world has been made and now they can start coloring it. "The flowers are mine" says Yellow. "I'll take the sea", says Blue. Although there was one challenge, they only have one day to color everything - starting at dawn and all should be done just before the sun sets. The creator was so tired and he decided to take a rest that day and let all the angels to their job and then told them that he will be sure to check their final work.
Now to get to earth, they need to ride on special clouds that are built for them to reach the planet from heaven. One by one they took off, ready and excited. But just as the last two are set to fly, the cloud maker machine that operates the clouds started to work funnily. So the machine angel, Serafin, asked Indigo to help him and hold a specific button. When he pressed it, Yellow was able to take off, and lastly, Indigo. But just before they were far enough, Indigo saw that the machine was blowing uncontrollable fumes of cloud from afar, which made her worried and decide to go back, leaving the 6 others as they continue their journey to the earth.
As she arrived, Serafin was shocked at her return, as she should already be on her way to earth. But she did not hesitate and started helping Serafin. The other angels, as they saw earth close by, started their work. Blue blew to the sky and to the seas, then Green did not hesitate and started blowing at the plants and fields. All of them unknowing that Indigo went back, not until Yellow told them. In the end, they forgot about her and just raced all the way to the earth battling and competing with each other in coloring every single uncolored thing they see on earth.
Indigo, stuck on the cloud maker machine to help Serafin is starting to realize that the other 6 angels are already coloring everything, and the day is almost ending. But when Serafin shouted that it's already good, she set off with him to catch up with the others to earth. When they arrived, everything was already colored and it was already late in the afternoon as Orange already took over most of the sunset sky. Also, the creator was already there and evaluating the work of his angels. He thought, why is there no Indigo anywhere? When he saw her, he asked what did she colored? Indigo started to cry and Serafin whispered everything to the Creator. "You did not let the sky be filled with clouds, no matter how much you wanted to come down", He told Indigo. "You saw a need, and you responded. Indigo, you are one responsible and amazing angel.". "Indigo, there is one more thing that is left uncolored", and then he whispered something to her.
Then Indigo started blowing her pigment into the sky covering most of the bright orange and reds and the darkening blues. Then the creator said, "Indigo, whenever the sun sets, everyone will be able to witness your color before it gets dark. This is the reward for an angel who cares and helps when someone is in need."
***
This story was originally shown in Tagalog Language as an episode on a Children's Educational show Hiraya Manawari in the Philippines when I was younger. And up until now that I'm older, I never cease to remember the glorious Indigo in the sky and what this story represents. A story of hope, of value, and of humility and purpose.
A lot of changes in my life this year and it kicked of at the first week of the year when I found out that the position I applied to in the organization, despite how far it is from my previous positions and also having zero background on the field, was offered to me. I was super excited and cannot believe it myself! I still am very happy and grateful 4 months after since I started last May though still on this crazy journey of being new to the position and to the workload.
But having said that, I would first like to thank my dearest blog friends for their support from my last couple of posts, and giving me the motivation and advises that I need and will treasure with me as I move forward. But this time, it's about looking back and sharing you some photos from my trips in the past months since the year started.
Kampong Glam, Singapore - January 2025
SINGAPORE - I was so happy when I found a promo fare going home to the Philippines with Singapore Airlines. Normally this airline is very expensive but after tracking cheap fares daily at the second half of the year last year, I stumbled upon this opportunity! Of course, just as I usually do on my layovers home, I looked for an itinerary that has a long layover so that I can visit the connecting city and that's how I end up on the Lion City for 12 hours!
Iloilo City, Philippines - February 2025
ILOILO, PHILIPPINES - I was home at the beginning of the year. Gratefully, I try to go home once every year to see my father. As much as I really feel that Spain is my home now, being able to have the opportunity to see my father and my family and also my childhood friends is deeply gratifying. For this trip, I took my father, my brother, and my cousin to an Island province 1 hour away from Manila by plane and we had a great time!
La Grotte de Choranche, France - March 2025
CHORANCHE, FRANCE - It was my very first Workshop for work just before I left my old team. So I was in Grenoble for a week and I stayed a few more days to spend time with my colleagues who live there who are also like family to me on this new life in Europe. My best friend and his wife and baby took me to this beautiful Cave in the Vercors mountains. It was so amazing and beautiful! I-m afraid of caves in the Philippines but this one it was lovely and dry when we visited.
Perpignan, France - April 2025
PERPIGNAN, FRANCE - This trip was a quickly planned weekend because it was Good Friday and I had nothing to do in Barcelona so I decided to buy a bus ticket just nights before the trip and it was great! Perpignan can be doable on a day trip from Barcelona but I stayed for a night just to make the most of the long weekend. Here you will see my VLOG Episode from my YouTube Channel that I filmed during my stay in Perpignan. You'll see more of me on this adventure and hope you enjoy the episode! WATCH IT ON 4K!
Bologna, Italy - June 2025
BOLOGNA, ITALY - To celebrate my birthday, I am so thankful to my best friend Ervis who is like a real brother to me. He was my teammate from my last position and even if we parted ways at work, he's always been there for me! He took me with him on his trip back home to Albania and we did the drive from France to Albania for 5 amazing days! This one was from our first stop in Bologna enjoying a giant cold beer (I asked him for just the smallest one!) in the plaza. Bologna was so beautiful!
***
It has been so nice to share these memories and adventures to you and it was also shocking for me to look back and see how much places and journeys I have done in just this year and that still does not include the remainder of our trip through the Balkans and my adventure in Romania last month!
I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I was when writing it and I wish you all an amazing week ahead! Work starts again soon but I still have a few hours to enjoy the rest of Sunday and I hope I won't be able to think of work thoughts all the time before tomorrow morning!
Four months in on my new job but still I am feeling very stressed and overwhelmed. I know that my job is a lot bigger plus the fact that I now work on a totally different field, the feeling of overwhelm comes with it. But more than that, I struggle with how I can stop feeling so panicked and anxious whenever there is a new topic or a process that I have no idea yet how to execute. And the worse part of this is that it's affecting my life outside work as well because that "fight or flight" feeling just comes in at random moments even outside work when something "scary" about work pops out of my mind.
I know (I hope actually) that this is just a phase but whenever I think that I'm already four months in, it's not helping me. My new leaders and stakeholders do not fail to motivate me and tell me I am doing not just okay but actually good, but maybe I am indeed kind of a perfectionist or has this somehow a control issue that I need to know everything as much as I can and do everything as much as I could which is denying myself to take some pauses and appreciate my progress instead of just constantly looking at that other end of the journey.
But more than all these things, everything is well and in between working since I started this new job, I did a couple of nice vacations in the Balkans and another week in Romania during the course of the Summer just to try and relax and do my best to forget about work and it did help me so much. I hope I can share more of that in this blog but I did some Travel Episodes on my YouTube Channel: Steven's Queue that you can join me with!
Aside from those two trips, my French friends from the office tagged me with them on a weekend drive through Spain's Northeastern Coast or known as the Costa Brava! They took me to a cute city called Begur which was so beautiful, quiant, and full of character! Here are some of my photos from that lovely August Day!
Begur Center
We started at the beautiful city center of Begur where my friends Clara and Anaïs drove for quite some distance from Barcelona. But the whole drive was worth it (of course I'm just a passenger as I do not know how to drive) and even if there were some tourists, it was not overpowering and crowded that we were able to enjoy the cute sights and even had some lunch of pinchos on the center.
Then Clara drove for another 15-20 minutes to visit Sa Tuna which was another beautiful coastal village, still part of Begur. I thought we were swimming there already but they took me to a beautiful more hidden cove which was Cala Malaret and I enjoyed it so much because I'm scared of waves so it was so ideal for me that I stayed in the water for almost an hour!
Cala Malaret
We all have our challenges in life and despite this mentally exhausting journey on this new job that also affects me emotionally, it is always the people around us that makes the adventure more bearable, enriching, and worth the efforts. Grateful for my new manager for the support she provides me, my main stakeholder who's been lenient with me and my mistakes, and my dear friends who act as my family here in my new life in Spain! I may be alone here but I'm a lot less lonely because of these beautiful souls! And of course, thanks to you y dear blog friends that even if I come and go, you never forget about me. And are always there to welcome me whenever I can pass by and express myself through writing.
I am very sure I am not the only one that experiences this because I have been at this state as well, sometime three years ago when I began a new position. And now, I find myself back on this familiar forest of continuous cycles of self-doubt and of fear. Fear that I'm not and will never be good enough for this new position. I know I haven't been working full time for a month yet on this new responsibility but I feel like it's just so big that what I have expected. But at the same time, I keep reminding myself to cut myself some slack because even if there was not much pressure (or should I say almost nothing really) coming from the leadership and my new team (they are supportive), I still feel overwhelmed because of the pressure I put on myself and worse, the constant struggle of feeling like a failure because I don't know everything at once.
I know the answer is in my head and in my hand and that is to remind myself that I am doing just well. And that I should not be scared to ask for help, to remind myself that things take time, and most of all to trust and believe in the leaders who chose me for this position against quite a number of other applicants - that even if I'm a newborn on this unfamiliar field, if I put my mind and effort into it (and of course combined with time, patience, and the support that is present) I will be able to make it, just like the last one.
We just tend to think that past positions are way easier and new ones are way more and harder but we should never forget that maybe it's not really the case, it's just the "unfamiliarity" of it that magnifies what it is right in front of us.
After a year and a half, I got the courage to write again. A lot has happened in these past two years and it has probably the fastest two years of my life. Not just because of my new life in Spain but with all the events that unfolded both positive and negative - but thankfully a lot more on the positive ones. But with everything comes the lessons we learn and events that will sharpen our faith, our humility, and most of all, our strength.
Just posting this as a shout out to everyone who has been sending me comments and messages throughout my absence and these are something I really appreciate. I honestly feel very guilty as most of them I only read today and posted your comments through approval but I just want you all to know that I really appreciate all the thoughts and especially to my blogging friend Beatrice who, despite my absence and continuous silence, constantly checked on me.
Leaving you for now with this photo of my last hike to Mount Pulag, the third highest peak in the Philippines - this was really a big challenge for me but I was so proud that I made it! You can also watch the two part episode of this adventure on my YouTube Channel - Steven's Queue
Just a post to say hi to everybody and I have been traveling lately during weekends just around Western Europe. Weather is getting chillier than usual here in Barcelona. I love it personally after a striking summer last August that got me sick for a couple of weeks. But so far it's been amazing, my first 9 months. Been trying to do a Social Media break so to spend better time I have updated my Blog's Domain using a subdomain.
To my dear Blog Friends, if you would change your bookmarks to my blog to direct to my new address which is https://blog.stevensonque.com it would be amazing. Just to spare you the extra click as my old link will now lead you to a more generic site that I plan to use to post my link tree and some portfolio stuff.
For now I leave you with this beautiful photo I took around the Universitat area in my Barcelona. Hope you like it and wishing you all the best and blessings!
.jpg)
